Fehr: Drug tests in '03 don't taint all players

JUPITER, Fla. - Baseball union head Donald Fehr rejects the suggestion many players are under suspicion because 104 of them tested positive for drug use in 2003, including Alex Rodriguez.

The testing was confidential until Rodriguez's results were leaked to a reporter. Pitchers Curt Schilling and Brad Lidge are among those who have said all players who tested positive should be identified because otherwise everyone who played in 2003 is suspect.

"If that's the judgment, it seems to me that is entirely wrong," Fehr said Monday. "We know what happened in 2003. The number of positives we had was slightly over 5 percent. That means that slightly over 94 percent was negative."

Fehr said the union will try to ensure the list of players who tested positive remains confidential. Federal appeals court judges in California will determine the fate of the list, which was seized by federal agents in April 2004.

Rodriguez said Feb. 9 he used banned drugs from 2001-03 while playing for the Texas Rangers. The admission came two days after Sports Illustrated reported his name was on the seized list.

"The agreement we had was that information related to 2003 was supposed to be and should remain confidential, and we believe it should," Fehr said.

Fehr made his comments after meeting with Florida Marlins players at the start of his annual tour of spring training camps. He said no player has told him the seized list should be made public.

Test samples and records were supposed to be destroyed, but Fehr said the players' association didn't have enough time to make arrangements after the results became final Nov. 13, 2003.

"To do this right away - there are labs, there are samples and there are records," Fehr said. "And we were advised (on Nov. 19) that there was a grand jury subpoena. Once that happens, you can't do it."

Fehr said he doesn't think commissioner Bud Selig will take disciplinary action against Rodriguez. Selig has said Rodriguez shamed the sport by using steroids.

"The commissioner is entitled to say whatever the commissioner wants to say," Fehr said. "Everybody understands that there were things which happened in the early part of the decade which we wish hadn't, that that's not the case anymore. We fixed the problem and we need to look forward, as Bud has said many times."

Fehr noted the joint drug agreement has been amended a number of times since 2003 and '04.

"So far as I know, there is not a hint or suggestion that there is anything inappropriate or that it's not functioning right or that it isn't doing the job in 2005, '06, '07 or '08," he said. "And somehow that gets lost in what I can basically call the sensationalism around what happened five years ago."

The union last week sent a memo to players advising them to be careful "answering questions sparked by the media frenzy." Fehr said he doesn't think recent events have damaged the union.

"Public perception is whatever it is," he said. "Unions have been in disfavor in this country for virtually 30 years. The question is: Does any of this stuff damage the union's standing with the players? And I don't think so."